The Unwritten Rules That Decide Safety — Not Your Policies

Every organisation says safety is a priority.

Look at the posters on the wall or the opening line of a safety policy and you’ll see the same claims:

“Safety is our number one value.”

“Every incident is preventable.”

“Nothing is more important than getting people home safe.”

These statements sound reassuring. They look impressive in a compliance audit. But they don’t capture the reality of how safety plays out day to day.

The problem isn’t that leaders don’t care about safety. It’s that too often, they confuse systems and policies with culture. And when there’s a gap between the two, the systems lose credibility.

What Safety Narratives Ignore

The way most organisations talk about safety is way too narrow. They obsess over processes, audits, risks and controls while ignoring the human and cultural factors that actually determine whether people behave safely.

Systems don’t shift behaviour on their own

Checklists, forms, and procedures are essential. But if the unwritten ground rules (UGRs) suggest it’s okay to take shortcuts to meet deadlines, those systems won’t matter. The paperwork gets filled in, the job still gets rushed, and everyone looks the other way.

Reporting is only as good as the culture behind it

Most organisations encourage reporting of hazards and near misses. But if people believe nothing changes when they speak up—or worse, that they’ll be punished—they’ll stop reporting. The formality remains. The reality dies quietly.

Leaders send mixed signals

Safety moments at the start of a meeting mean little if the same leaders reward output over safe practice, or ignore unsafe behaviours from high performers. Culture is shaped less by what’s said and more by what leaders consistently walk past.

The silence is the real danger

When people stop speaking up, it isn’t because risks disappeared—it’s because fear has taken over. The absence of bad news is not proof of a good culture. It’s proof that people don’t feel safe to tell the truth.

Safety culture is relentless

You don’t build safety culture in an offsite or a once-a-year campaign. It’s defined every day: how people intervene in the moment, how leaders react to mistakes, how workarounds are treated, and whether concerns are addressed or ignored.

Why This Matters

When safety is reduced to systems and slogans, the disconnect becomes obvious. People know the words. They see the posters. But they experience a different reality on the ground.

And once that gap opens up, trust erodes. People comply on paper, but cut corners in practice. Leaders think the system is working, but the UGRs are telling a different story.

This is how preventable incidents happen. Not because the system was missing, but because the culture was never aligned to it.

Where the Focus Needs to Shift

If organisations want safety cultures that actually work, leaders need to move past tokenism and into the hard realities:

• What UGRs are shaping how people act when no one is watching?

• Do deadlines and targets silently outrank safe practice?

• What behaviours are tolerated, even from high performers, that put safety at risk?

• Do people believe speaking up will make things better—or make life harder?

• What are the everyday behaviours leaders need to normalise to make safety credible?

Final Word

Safety isn’t a poster. It isn’t a procedure. It isn’t a campaign slogan.

Safety culture is lived in the small, daily decisions people make—and the signals leaders send by what they reward, ignore, or walk past.

If organisations are serious about safety, they need to stop pretending systems are enough and start addressing the UGRs that drive behaviour.

Because safety culture isn’t what you document.

Safety culture is what you tolerate.